Ripping and editing video

[kah5683]

I have some home movies that I had on vhs tape that I am finally dubbing onto dvd's.  I am then ripping the dvd's to put on the computer, and then want to edit the videos (mainly trimming right now).

I usually use handbrake to rip the dvd's and then avidemux to edit.  I am running into the following message when I open up advidemux with the ripped home movies from handbrake (or when I open up avidemux with the .mov files from my flipcamera):

H.264 detected

If the file is using B-frames as reference it can lead to a crash or stuttering.
Avidemux can use another mode which is safe but YOU WILL LOSE FRAME ACCURACY.
Do you want to use that mode?

When I don't use the other mode, the audio is off sync, and when I do, it is hard to edit with the loss of frame accuracy.

Is there is a better way to do this?

Thanks!

[Just17]

There are other   'video editor'  packages in the repository ......  maybe try a couple of them ?

[horusfalcon]

I have some home movies that I had on vhs tape that I am finally dubbing onto dvd's.  I am then ripping the dvd's to put on the computer, and then want to edit the videos (mainly trimming right now).

I usually use handbrake to rip the dvd's and then avidemux to edit.  I am running into the following message when I open up advidemux with the ripped home movies from handbrake (or when I open up avidemux with the .mov files from my flipcamera):

H.264 detected

If the file is using B-frames as reference it can lead to a crash or stuttering.
Avidemux can use another mode which is safe but YOU WILL LOSE FRAME ACCURACY.
Do you want to use that mode?

When I don't use the other mode, the audio is off sync, and when I do, it is hard to edit with the loss of frame accuracy.

Is there is a better way to do this?

Thanks!

Just a couple of questions:

How are you ripping from VHS?  Are you using a transcription deck (that records directly from VHS to DVD)?  If not, you're already capturing digital video somewhere to produce the DVD, so a rip from the disk seems like an unnecessary step.

You're also using raw .mov footage from a camera.  Is this what you are converting with Handbrake?  (Doesn't seem like it.)

End questions.

IF I might suggest it, look at something called Cinelerra.  It's in the repositories.  Be advised the learning curve is kinda steep, but it has a lot of capability.  For something less intense, try Kino.  As was said earlier, there are other tools in the repositories that work well enough.

Here's a decent short into to B-Frames, what they do, and why, with links to further reading.  It might also be wise to read up on h.264 - it's a very popular encoding format, and very capable when used well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_compression_picture_types#Bi-directional_predicted_frames.2Fslices_.28B-frames.2Fslices.29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

Good Luck with your project.  Hope all goes well for you.

Later On,
D

[kah5683]

horusfalcon:

Just a couple of questions:

How are you ripping from VHS?  Are you using a transcription deck (that records directly from VHS to DVD)?  I am using an older Panasonic DVD Recorder

You're also using raw .mov footage from a camera.  Is this what you are converting with Handbrake?  (Doesn't seem like it.)  No.  I dub with the DVD Recorder from VHS to DVD, rip with Handbrake, and edit with avidemux.  The movies from the camera I download onto computer and edit with avidemux.

When I look at the video options in handbrake, under video encoder, the default is the H.264, but I can also choose mpeg-4 (ffmpeg) or mpeg-2 (ffmpeg).  Are those better alternatives?

[horusfalcon]

Sorry if this goes a bit long.  The topic is not a simple one.

horusfalcon:

Just a couple of questions:

How are you ripping from VHS?  Are you using a transcription deck (that records directly from VHS to DVD)?  I am using an older Panasonic DVD Recorder

You're also using raw .mov footage from a camera.  Is this what you are converting with Handbrake?  (Doesn't seem like it.)  No.  I dub with the DVD Recorder from VHS to DVD, rip with Handbrake, and edit with avidemux.  The movies from the camera I download onto computer and edit with avidemux.

When I look at the video options in handbrake, under video encoder, the default is the H.264, but I can also choose mpeg-4 (ffmpeg) or mpeg-2 (ffmpeg).  Are those better alternatives?

That "Panasonic DVD Recorder" is a transcription deck.  Tape goes in one side, blank DVD-R goes in the other, press a few keys, and a player-ready DVD-R is the final result.  Not fancy, (e.g., no menus or control over chapter divisions) but it gets the job done.

As to the "better alternatives", that can turn into a religious war in some circles.  Me, I tend to be more pragmatic:  if your conversions are playing back correctly in the desired environment, you are being successful to that point.

Where it seems you are having trouble is during playback after editing with avidemux.  I don't really use avidemux that much myself, so I would hesitate to give app-specific advise there.  You might consider consulting the avidemux forums
for something more authoritative.

Getting back to the compression format:  this quote from Wikipedia may help clarify for you why h.264 is not necessarily a bad choice:

H.264 is perhaps best known as being one of the codec standards for Blu-ray Discs; all Blu-ray Disc players must be able to decode H.264. It is also widely used by streaming internet sources, such as videos from Vimeo, YouTube, and the iTunes Store, web software such as the Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, and also various HDTV broadcasts over terrestrial (ATSC, ISDB-T, DVB-T or DVB-T2), cable (DVB-C) and satellite (DVB-S and DVB-S2).

So, you can see h.264 is quite versatile and popular.  If you can make it work for you, your finished product will be capable of reaching a wide audience on a variety of media outlets.  If that's a consideration, you may want to stick with it.  If you're not so concerned with this aspect, other formats may serve your needs as well as or better than h.264.  I would hazard to guess that MP4 (ffmpeg) would be worth a try on a small sample, just to see.

Another item of interest is whether you're using MP4 or MKV output from Handbrake.  These two container formats have different strengths and weaknesses.  Here's a comparison from the Handbrake Wiki:

I favor MKV outputs for a lot of what I do, but I have different requirements than you may have (ability to add foreign language subtitles, alternate audio tracks, etc.), and for some things I find MP4 output is simpler (transcoding for tablets like the Nook Tablet).

What would tempt you to consider another option?  I'd probably consider finding another way to edit the h.264 stuff you have now, but that's me.

Hope some of this helps you sort it out.

Later On,
D

[µT6]

what is producing the .mov files, handbrake?  can you use another rip tool?

avidemux doesn't like .mov files much, especially audio that comes with it, not sure why

perhaps convert the mov to something else first but i think it is more simple to copy the vob files to the hard disk and then join them in avidemux?  i just tested it and does work

the idea would be create a iso of the dvd or copy the vob files from the dvd, if it doesn't have any anticopy technology it is a simple task to do and files won't end corrupt or unreadable

if you make the iso you can open it with ark and export the vob files to a folder and then add them to avidemux

you can cut, edit audio and all you want to do with it and then convert from the vob to avi or something else, this way you don't loose quality from the ripping process and you can have results faster

[horusfalcon]

what is producing the .mov files, handbrake?  can you use another rip tool?

avidemux doesn't like .mov files much, especially audio that comes with it, not sure why

perhaps convert the mov to something else first but i think it is more simple to copy the vob files to the hard disk and then join them in avidemux?  i just tested it and does work

the idea would be create a iso of the dvd or copy the vob files from the dvd, if it doesn't have any anticopy technology it is a simple task to do and files won't end corrupt or unreadable

if you make the iso you can open it with ark and export the vob files to a folder and then add them to avidemux

you can cut, edit audio and all you want to do with it and then convert from the vob to avi or something else, this way you don't loose quality from the ripping process and you can have results faster

Yeah, it really shouldn't be necessary to mess with ISOs, but keep reading.  µT6's approach is not a bad one at all, and has the virtue of having been tested.

Your home-made DVDs should not have copy protection, so this shouldn't be a big deal.

The flip camera is producing .mov as its "raw" output, yes?  It might be desirable to transcode that to .MP4 or .MKV of some kind.  Even .AVI could work, it's just such an old format I hesitate to recommend it.  .MKV would possibly be more difficult to work with, and who needs more steps in this process than necessary?  (I'd conduct initial experiments with small samples from the camera until I found the "sweet spot" were I you.  Definitely use whatever works to your satisfaction.)

If you do decide to muck around with mounting ISOs to work from, look at acetoneISO, too.  It's an ISO management tool with a nice GUI and some nice features (such as playing back mounted DVD ISOs with MPlayer or SMPlayer directly from your hard drive).  I can see where you might have a use for such features.

One of your original sources (VHS) is roughly 333x480 pixels, so anything greater than that will be acceptable in subsequent transcoding barring any serious errors in transcription.  Larger amounts of upscaling (anything greater than, say, 800x600) during transcoding can have an effect on this, though, depending on the interpolation methods selected.  You may have to play around here to see what works best for you.  (Actual "standard definition" NTSC TV resolution is something like 575x192, but that's scanlines, not pixels. Not truly the same thing.)

I'm not sure about your camera's resolution, but you should probably work to the same or slightly higher resolution in your finished product to preserve video quality.  Massive upscaling should be avoided for the same reasons already mentioned.

Again, here's hoping it goes well for you.

Later On,
D